Daniel Ricciardo claims his stunning maiden Pole Position in F1 ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo claims his stunning maiden Pole Position in F1 ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix

In qualifying for the Monaco GP yesterday, Daniel Ricciardo took his maiden Pole Position of his career with a stunning performance ahead of the Mercedes drivers of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

During Q1, Max Verstappen clipped the barrier on the entry to the second part of the Swimming Pool complex, breaking his right front steering arm and sending his car hard into the barriers on the exit. The error came on his first flying lap, with his previous attempt some eight seconds off the ultimate pace. He will start ahead of Felipe Nasr on the back row of the grid after the Sauber suffered an engine failure on its outlap from the pits and failed to set a time.

But the main talking point was that in Q3, Lewis Hamilton's session was compromised by a fuel pressure issue that saw his engine cut out at the end of the pit lane as he prepared to go out on track. His car was wheeled back to the pits for repairs and he headed back out with five minutes to spare.

He aborted his first quick lap and then completed a series of slow laps ahead of one final attempt that proved to be over three tenths of a second shy of Ricciardo.

However this made Ricciardo’s qualifying session was made all the more impressive by his best lap in Q2, which was set on the super-soft tyres rather than the ultra-softs and means he will start the race on the longer-lasting of the two compounds while the nine cars behind him will start on ultra-softs.

But it was Daniel Ricciardo who was fastest with a lap time of 1.13.622 ahead of Nico Rosberg in second place who was 0.169 seconds behind him and ahead of Lewis Hamilton in third place who was 0.320 seconds behind Ricciardo.

Sebastian Vettel finished the session in fourth place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in fifth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in sixth place, Sergio Perez in seventh place, Daniil Kvyat in eighth place, Fernando Alonso in ninth place and Valtteri Bottas who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified in eleventh place ahead of Esteban Gutierrez in twelfth place, Jenson Button in thirteenth place, Felipe Massa in fourteenth place and Romain Grosjean in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Kevin Magnussen ended the session in sixteenth place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in seventeenth place, Jolyon Palmer in eighteenth place, Rio Haryanto in nineteenth place, Pascal Wehrlein in twentieth place, Max Verstappen in twenty-first place and. Felipe Nasr in twenty-second place.

The classification of Qualifying for the Monaco GP is as follows:-

1. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.13.622
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.169s
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.320s
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.930s
5. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.104s
6. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.127s
7. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.280s
8. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1.651s
9. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.741s
10. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.15.273s
11. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.14.732s*
12. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1.15.293s
13. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.15.352s
14. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.15.385s
15. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1.15.571s
16. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1.16.058s
17. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.16.299s
18. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1.16.586s
19. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 1.17.295s
20. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1.17.452s
21. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.22.467s**
22. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, No Time***

[*Kimi Raikkonen gets a five place grid penalty for replacing his gearbox, ** Max Verstappen will be starting from the pitlane after replacing his chassis, *** Felipe Nasr will start from the pitlane due to an engine failure in Q1.]

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa